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Gas sector split on export restrictions

Gas sector split on export restrictions

As the nation’s oil and gas industry gathers in Perth today for its annual conference, there appears to be a fracturing of sector unity as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull talks of targeted east coast export restrictions and oil prices remain under sustained pressure.

On east coast gas restrictions, the Santos-led Gladstone LNG project is receiving little support from its Queensland export rivals or domestic competitors in its claim the Prime Minister’s export restrictions, which only target GLNG, create sovereign risk.

There is also an east-west divide building, with Perth-based Woodside Petroleum chief Peter Coleman, the conference’s keynote speaker, saying last week that the peak body that sponsors the conference, the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, had been too focused on the east coast gas crisis in recent years.